Firebomber Publications Blog

Wildfire News Of The Day (the Firebomber Publications blog) provides comprehensive international wildfire news. Subscribers include over 10,000 personnel from fire agencies, contractors, and government entities on five continents. "BEST NEWSLETTER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY 32 YEARS IN THE FIRE SERVICE" - San Diego Fire Department Chief Brian Fennessy.

Monday, September 10, 2012

WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 091012

We lead off today with a Wildfire Hazard Risk Report from CoreLogic which provides a measure of the billions of dollars in exposure insurance companies in the West face from wildfires (1); while Wildfire NOTD subscriber Jon Keeley, a Research Ecologist at US Geological Survey, published a new article which compares post-fire recovery in California chaparral with that of Arizona chaparral (2); and Wildfire NOTD subscriber Mike Rogers, a retired Angeles National Forest Supervisor, comments on US Forest Service's decision not to use LA County's night-flying helicopters to fight Southern California's 4,192-acre Williams Fire (3); a 12-acre wildfire being reported outside of Mentone Saturday (4); that article followed by a summary of wildfire activity across the Golden State (5); where the DC-10 saw some action over a 4,100-acre wildfire burning in Lake County (6); Santa Rosa Air Attack Base becoming a very busy place, with aircraft taking off and landing every 15 minutes (7); and as a wildfire in Colusa County neared 18,000 acres in size, firefighters had it 90% contained (8); meanwhile, fire crews have the 22,248-acre Goff Fire, which has been burning in the Siskiyou National Forest, 92% contained (9). Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center reported that a wildfire burning near Sisters has grown to 2,000 acres in size (10). Four counties in Washington state are being pummeled by 110 wildfires (11); a 500-acre blaze near Wenatchee threatening scores of homes (12); an Ellensburg resident discussing her close encounter with wildfires in the next article (13). Fire crews plan to fully contain an 800-acre wildfire burning in Nevada's Pine Nut Mountains by Tuesday (14); but following Colorado's devastating wildfires, insurance experts encouraged homeowners to do complete inventories well ahead of possible evacuations (15). A wildfire in Idaho's Payette National Forest has scorched 2,500 acres (16); two communities being forced to evacuate when the 260,000-acre Mustang Complex Fire headed their way Sunday (17). Texas Forest Service reported a dozen wildfires burning in East Texas (18). A wildfire outside of Hamilton, Montana, tripled in size to 1,300 acres (19); a wildfire on Casper Mountain causing the evacuation of 400 homeowners (20). A 2,200-acre wildfire near Jackson, Wyoming, forced over 1,000 evacuations (21); and after 460 wildfires so far this year, Michigan has seen three times the number of blazes it normally would (22). Forest managers in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area worry about the damage caused by the 145 mi.² wildfire that scorched the area last year (23); a photo extravaganza showing new growth as the forest is reborn (24). British Columbia, Canada's, Coastal Fire Centre reported that a small forest fire near Lions Bay has been brought under control (25); but another blaze near Peachland has forced 1,500 residents to evacuate (26); while an update on wildfire activity in the province of Ontario is provided by the next article (27). Wildfires continued to rage across Southern Europe, with blazes being reported in Portugal, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Albania (28); a summary of wildfire activity in Russia's Siberia being provided by the next item (29). Artificial rain is being created over the Indonesian island of Sumatra to reduce the amount of smoky haze from wildfires choking the provincial capital of Riau (30). An article from Victoria, Australia, takes a look at how special forums are helping Black Saturday bushfire survivors cope (31); while a 12-year-old has been arrested for starting a bushfire in New South Wales (32); and firefighters near Grafton, NSW, warned motorists of driving hazards due to bushfire smoke (33). As property owners in Queensland began conducting burn-offs, Ergon Energy officials are worried that power lines could be damaged (34); while a 3-hectare wildfire near Peregian forced evacuation of some cattle Sunday (35). Lawyers have prepared a bushfire class-action suit for residents of Margaret River against the West Australian Department of Environment and Conservation (36); the following article emphasizing the importance of reducing fuel loads, thereby creating defensible space around property (37). And finally, our last article today asks a tricky question: is the death of a firefighter in an arson fire murder?